May 22, 2018 Damascus Is Secured, Daraa Is NextTue May 22, 2018 22:02 | Scotthttps://southfront.org/syrian-war-rep... Late on May 21, Russian air defense systems, allegedly a Pantsir-S short to medium range system, launched at least four missiles at ?unidentified? targets over the Khmeimim air base

We are publishing this piece by PANA explaining what PESCO is about and how it means the loss of our neutrality. Unfortunately since then on Dec 7th the Dail voted by 75 to 42 to join PESCO. Some key points are::
1) PESCO is a binding agreement because it says so. The government claims it is not. It is.
2) PESCO commits us to spending 2% of GDP on military spending by 2022. This is a figure of € 5.5 billion. We currently spend 1/10th of that on defense. This makes a mockery of "fiscal space"
3) PESCO in the event of crisis places under NATO's command. Therefore we are no longer neutral.
4) PESCO is the side door to Ireland joining a EU Army / NATO and would have us involved in "humanitarian" bombing and "peace making" -in other words imposing the demands of the corporate interests that rule above all else.

The Irish Government is considering joining PESCO. This will be one of the most important decisions this FG/Independeny Alliance will ever make. There needs at the very least a serious debate on the issue, and in any genuine debate form all sides in the corporate media. On the evidence so far this is highly improbable, as is their total lack of coverage of the use of Shannon Airport by US troops

We are republishing this article by Stephen Donnelly TD who has been doing great work in exposing how Fine Gael have gone out of their away to facilitate vulture funds who are now preying on ordinary people by charging exorbitant rents and fueling the current property and are replacing the English absentee landlord of centuries past, with ruthless vulture funds capitalists of this era and essentially introducing a form of neo-fuedalism as increasing huge swaths of the population are either priced out of buying homes, or are signing up for debt that last close to a lifetime.

On the centenary anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising it is worth reflecting on what has happened since then and the aspirations of the proclamation to guarantee equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens and cherishing all of the children of the nation equally.

The Rising itself was doomed to failure from the start but as with life itself often the most unpredictable and unexpected things happen because despite the lack of initial public support, after the executions sympathies swung the other way and as they say the rest was history and the ripples spread out, because it has been said the fight for independence of India was inspired by the Irish Rising.

The election cycle has come around yet again it is time to take a look at some of the issues being discussed and more importantly those not discussed and have a quick look at the economy.

For this election there are more independents going up than ever before, although people should be warned that a certain fraction of them are closet FFers and FGers so if it is change you are looking for, they may not be the candidates to vote for. Sometimes people seemed to assume Independents tend to be more to the Left. There is no inherent reason this should be the case and statistically one would expect them to evenly spread to the Left and Right. So if voting for an Independent then be sure you have checked what they really stand for and their previous record if any.

SAN FRANCISCO Netflix's stock market value ballooned to a record $153 billion on Thursday and eclipsed Walt Disney Co for the first time, making it the world's top entertainment company and underscoring a monumental shift by viewers away from cinemas and cable television.

n response to Israel’s horrific massacre of some 60 unarmed Palestinians, and wounding of thousands, yesterday in Gaza, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) has organised a series of protests around Ireland to take place today. Protests are expected to continue in Gaza, and casualties are expected to mount.

Responding to a recent measles outbreak in which 17 adults and children have been infected with the highly infectious disease , Dr Deirdre Mulholland, Director of Public Health for HSE East, has urged people to get themselves and their dependants vaccinated , saying, “the best protection is to be fully vaccinated with 2 doses of MMR vaccine."
The majority of the patients currently being treated are from north Dublin; five are from Meath, the HSE said today. A spokeswoman for the Measles Outbreak Control Team said that alerts regarding the disease have been sent to all Emergency Departments and GPs in Dublin, and Meath.

Dear friends, in case you missed this shocking news last week, while en route to occupied Palestine four Irish people were seized by Israeli authorities in Ben Gurion airport and deported. Below is a statement issued by the four deportees which includes a call for you to write to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney (minister@dfa.ie) voicing your concerns about this arbitrary expulsion of human rights activist to stop them from bearing witness to the effects of Israel’s apartheid regime

In the face of the worst housing crisis since rackrenting of the 19 th century why is Irish society so hung up on cement houses that resemble bunkers.There are numerous alternatives to cement and concrete and most western countries and developing world universities are exploring and investing in education for engineering and architectural studies called biotecture and geotecture knowledge transfer degrees

The Right2Water campaign is currently developing a submission in relation to the River Basin Management Plan (RBMP) which will be submitted to the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government as part of their consultation process.

In order to ensure all Right2Water Ireland's supporters' voices are heard and are involved in this process, we are asking you to fill in this short survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PKN3YXN

The European Commission has written to Ireland ‘seeking clarification’ about the remediation work taking place on the hazardous waste site within the defunct steel works Haulbowline Island in Cork Harbour.

Internal memos from the HSE tell a shocking story of cover up and wilful endangering of lives.

A memo from March 2016 shows that audits on cervical screening tests began in 2010 but it was only six years later, that the HSE noted that ‘the process is reaching the stage of communicating individual case reports’.

In other words, telling doctors and the women concerned about problems found.

An environmental group has published a commitment from the Irish Government to the European Commission to extend the clean-up of the East Tip at the site of the former ISPAT steelworks on Haulbowline Island in County Cork to an ‘all island’ clean up.

The State is completing the clean-up of a 9 hectare East Tip contaminated waste dump but the machinery is to be removed at the end of the summer, leaving the 11 hectare site of the original steel mill in a contaminated and unusable state.

The Irish ME/CFS Association is pleased to announce that it has arranged four free screenings of the documentary Unrest, on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), for May 12th, International ME/CFS Awareness Day.

It may seem absurd but this campaign calls for the nomination of William Delaney 1957 -1970 as a presidential candidate for the forth coming 2018 elections. A child who received a 6 year prison sentence to Letterfrack industrial school for stealing a loaf of bread, a sentence which cost him his life. Our state has failed to honour the victims of institutional abuse, to call to task the collaborators and perpetrators of abuse and violence again the most vulnerable, or to treat the victims with anything amounting to the measure of dignity which any living creature deserves.